Over 18 million people in the US suffer from urinary incontinence. Many forms of incontinence have been linked to poor muscle tone in the pubococcygeus or pelvic floor muscles. The pelvic floor muscles originate from the symphysis pubis and extend posteriorly encompassing the urethra, the vagina, and the rectum. The pelvic floor muscles often work in conjunction with other muscles, such as the sphincter urethrae, to control urination. Many pathological conditions, such as cystocoel (hernial protrusion of the urinary bladder through the vaginal wall), rectocoel (hernial protrusion of part of the rectum into the vagina), uterine prolapse (protrusion of the uterus through the vaginal orifice), and bladder and sexual dysfunctions, may be caused by a weakened condition of the pelvic floor muscles. It is widely known that treatment of these pathological conditions generally includes development of muscle tone in the pelvic floor muscles.
One procedure for improving tone in the pelvic floor muscles is for the patient to exercise these muscles through voluntary contractions. Many patients find it difficult to perform such exercises because of an unfamiliarity with how to control the pelvic floor muscles or due to the weakened state of the muscles. Some types of voluntary exercises have been prescribed, such as the exercises developed by Dr. Arnold Kegel. To perform these exercises properly requires instruction, such as the insertion of an instructor's finger into the vagina or anus to determine when the correct muscles have been contracted. Once the patient has learned to contract the correct muscle group, the patient repeats the contractions many times per day. The requirement for personal instruction is often an impediment to a patient seeking care for incontinence or other conditions caused by pelvic muscular dysfunction.
Many training devices have therefore been developed for assistance in exercising the pelvic floor muscles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,938 to Remih discloses a vaginal muscle exerciser having an inflatable, compressible body connected to an air cell. The air cell houses a piston connected to a tongue which raises and lowers a U-shaped pointer riding along a numerical scale to indicate the pressure. As a user applies pressure to the body by contraction of the pelvic muscles, air is forced out of the body, through a tube and into the air cell. As air enters or leaves the air cell, the piston moves upwardly or downwardly to approximately indicate on the scale the amount of applied pressure. A digital readout of the total pressure applied to the compressible body is also disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,541,520 to Kegel discloses another device for exercising injured sphincter muscles. The device includes a resilient member that is inserted within a sphincter muscle. A hose connects the device to a mechanical pressure gauge and an externally located pump. As pressure is applied to the inflatable member by the user's sphincter muscles, air is forced from the resilient member, through the hose and toward the mechanical pressure gauge, where the pressure is approximately indicated by a needle on the pressure gauge.
None of these prior devices, however, have been able to provide a fully effective exercise regimen.